The Edmonton Oilers have been looking all season for somebody they could count on to play moderately well in net. They didn’t necessarily need a goalie to steal them games, just competent performances that would give the team a chance to win.

They got a lot more than that last night from Richard Bachman.

47 Saves

Regardless of what he does from here on out, Bachman wrote himself into the record books with a 47 save performance on Sunday night. It’s only the fourth time in Oilers history that a goaltender has made 45 saves while allowing one or fewer goals, and it puts Bachman in pretty good company:

Bill Ranford on Dec. 8, 1993: Made 45 saves in a 1-1 tie against the New York Rangers.

Curtis Joseph on Dec. 10, 1996: Made 52 saves in a 0-0 tie against the Detroit Red Wings.

Dwayne Roloson on Mar. 16, 2008: Made 48 saves in a 2-1 win against the San Jose Sharks.

Richard Bachman on Oct. 27, 2013: Made 47 saves in a 2-1 shootout loss against the Los Angeles Kings.

Not a bad impression for Bachman to make in his first start for his new team.

The Goaltending Situation

Edmonton faces some tough choices here, because it’s a good bet they don’t want to visit the three-headed goaltending days of years past. Whether it was the Conklin-Markkanen-Morrison trio in 2005-06 or Roloson-Garon-Deslauriers in 2008-09 it never seems to work; not only is roster flexibility reduced but it just doesn’t make sense to carry three guys when one is going to get most of the games.

Devan Dubnyk, who is currently out with a minor injury, seems to be regaining his form of past seasons and based on his long-term track record should get more minutes than either of the Oilers’ other options. After that is where things get interesting.

Jason LaBarbera has been rough in his four starts for Edmonton. Despite some of the comments these days, he was actually quite good in Phoenix (he had a 0.923 save percentage last year and his numbers overall were solid in all four years) and a very reasonable bet for the backup role. The question now is two-fold: a) has he fallen off a cliff at age 33 and b) even if he hasn’t, how long can the Oilers afford to let him find his game?

Richard Bachman has some advantages over LaBarbera. For starters, he costs less against the salary cap; even adding in the $75,000 cost of burying LaBarbera in the minors the Oilers would save $300,000 with him as backup over a full season. Bachman’s also younger (he turned 26 this summer) and has played very well for both Edmonton and Oklahoma this season. The disadvantage is his long-term track record: he’s only been a 0.906 save percentage goalie over 33 NHL games and posted a lousy 0.885 save percentage for Dallas last season.

The Oilers don’t have a lot of time to make a choice. I haven’t seen official confirmation of this, but my guess is that Edmonton recalled Bachman under the 48-hour exemption rule. As Rich Chere of The Star Ledger explains, a team is allowed to recall a goalie for 48 hours without needing to put a mildly injured player on the IR list. If that’s the case, Edmonton’s already almost out of time to make a decision.

Depending on perspective, Bachman’s performance made that decision either extremely easy or extremely difficult.

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Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

It's your top line! These guys need to be able to hold there own against the other teams top lines. You can't shelter them forever! Time for them to learn to play with the big boys!

It's not a matter of sheltering. It's a matter of line matching you put good defensive guys to cover or play against the other teams star players. Do you fight fire with fire? Or do you put something over it to smother it out??? God I miss Todd Marchant. He wasn't the big forward everyone thinks we are missing now but he was a great oiler back in the day. He played the tough minutes and kept the other teams stars from lighting up the score board like washingtons top line did.

Everyone should be reading Jason Gregor's article in the journal,The mismanagement of this team is very obvious, what are the chances we make the post season this year? NONE,there have been way to many mistakes from Kevin Lowe and his management group,The hiring of Tambellini and then Tambellini's hiring of Quinn,Renney and Kruger,Fire Tambellini hire Mactavish (who has no general manager experience at all) he fires Kruger and then replaces him with Eakins(again no NHL head coaching experience) then Eakins is left with Buchburger and Smith who have been here with the previous 3 head coaches.What a gong show this is and we haven't even started with the players and drafting.I wasn't to happy when Pronger left, but is there a slight possibility that he didn't want to play for Lowe? and let's not forget what happened to Souray, he spoke up and then they sent him down to the AHL and then came back to the NHL and we got absolutely nothing for that asset.The Oilers organization is VERY LUCKY to have such a loyal fan base,Loyalty though only lasts so long,I want a competitive team,I want a team that's in the playoff hunt in March and not out of it by December,If this SH*T SHOW continues and its what I have to look forward to as a Oiler's fan,then I will no longer support them as a season ticket holder,after 14 years I have had enough.Its time Mr Katz listens to his fan base and does the right thing, starting with the firing of Kevin Lowe. He has had 14 years as a coach,manager and president of hockey operations, its very apparent he does not know what he is doing,his record speaks for itself.

I think Bachman deserves an extended stint up with the big club to see if he has what it takes, but I'm thinking the Oilers send him down again because they don't want to risk losing Labarbara on waivers. It is a very slight possibility, however the risk still exsists. That would leave OKC with a tandem of Roy & Bunz and that could be extremely ugly.

Another kid who came to training camp without a shot to make it with the parent club. A lot of wasted time and effort accommodating the illusions of attending an NHL T/C. The Oilers are sure paying for all that wasted time now. New systems, rookie coach, a third of the team turned over. I'm sure they wish they could get that 3 1/2 weeks back now. By the time they get their act together the season will be over for them, if it isn't already.

Failure are the results of wasting an opportunity and lack of preparedness. Fire the whole friggen bunch of them, coaches, management as well as the president.

I think Bachman deserves an extended stint up with the big club to see if he has what it takes, but I'm thinking the Oilers send him down again because they don't want to risk losing Labarbara on waivers. It is a very slight possibility, however the risk still exsists. That would leave OKC with a tandem of Roy & Bunz and that could be extremely ugly.

Who cares what happens with OKC??
That is the whole purpose of the Farm Team.
Although I wouldn't put it past Oilers Management to drive two franchises into the dirt.

Also I had a disturbing thought recently.
From top to bottom, Klowe, MacT,Eakins,and the players have talked about playing a fast exciting brand of hockey. They all believe that this is a good way to win and its just a matter of time until we turn the corner.
If it turns out that fast exciting hockey and the systems that are in place to allow said hockey just arent viable then we are more screwed than I thought.
I guess to compensate for the negative chances created by our offense we need a star goalie.

Live by the sword, >Die by the Sword

You're disturbing thought is probably more like a dawning realization of the truth. All one has to do is watch the post game interviews of Tippett and Sutter from the Oilers games against Phoenix and LA.

Sure, they pay lip service to the speed and skill of the Oilers like its mandated by the league or something, but its getting easier to hear the subtext - and some of it is pretty blatant - there is little regard to Oilers brand of hockey as even being hockey at all. Small sample size sure, but they can't be the only two coaches in the league who regard Oilers as little more than a nuisance match.

The 48 hour exemption rule means that they may have more than 23 on the roster? Then they have to send someone else out or put some one on IR. he deserves a second start with his performance. To send him down after that will show the wrong message.
I'm not saying that Labarbara has to be sent down, but the Oilers do have to find out what they can expect from their goal tenders.

Johnathan, we have to quit putting so much value on save%, GA average for goaltenders that played in an organization that are defence first, does anyone really think that Mike Smith would have a $6mil contract if he would have played for the Oil the last two years? The biggest mistake made on the Labarbara signing is he is Dubynk's buddy, this is not a good arrangement and there were better options.

Any once else notice Kopitar absolute owning Acro the whole game. Acro's head doesn't even reach Koitar's shoulder.Even so Eakins keep putting him out there to get spanked.Makes me wonder about Eakins ability to manage a game and make adjustments.

I agree 100%. This was totally verified vs the Caps in Edm. You have last change! Match the lines. Why put your ripe, young stars against the crafty veteran stars? Showed on the stats sheets, all 3 were -4 each.

Although I would not be ready to give him the number 1 role at this point, he has only earned another game, but I would disagree with everyone saying it is only one game. He has been good down in OKC all year, something we cant say about the other 2

Any once else notice Kopitar absolute owning Acro the whole game. Acro's head doesn't even reach Koitar's shoulder.Even so Eakins keep putting him out there to get spanked.Makes me wonder about Eakins ability to manage a game and make adjustments.

I thought it was a good battle all game. I noticed Arco take down Koptiar twice. What was Kopitar stat sheet? Zeros.

Any once else notice Kopitar absolute owning Acro the whole game. Acro's head doesn't even reach Koitar's shoulder.Even so Eakins keep putting him out there to get spanked.Makes me wonder about Eakins ability to manage a game and make adjustments.

Yes, with your brainy ideas, you would probably send Hemsky out to shadow Kopitar.
At least Arco, is trying, unlike some of the other guys with size , doing nothing. The fourth line is a waste of time.

only 1 game but bachman looked better than anything weve seen all year. still hard to get excited about much though knowing the season is a wash already. it was obvious that last nights game was men vs boys which lies squarely on managements refusal in past years to surround these kids with more seasoned vets. yesterdays article on prospects notably greg chase gives me hope that our bottom segments of the line up will eventually be filled with skilled players instead of plugs. go oilers!

Just read Gregor's column in the Journal, which criticized the Oilers rebuild. IAFT that our local press started hammering the braintrust. When I read the article it really hit home how screwed up this organization is. They don't need a miracle cure like Bachman to stand on his head every night, they need a Burke type guy to sit the big chair and make some ballsey moves to get this team going in the right direction. Look what happened in Montreal, which proves that a skilled manager can make a difference quickly.

After years of buying into the managements BS and giving them the benefit of the doubt, I can now safely say that I have absolutely no faith in MacT, KLowe, Howson or any other member of this so-called management group. That absolute schlaking we took last night reminded me of 4 years ago, which proves that we have not improved. F*ck the stats, does anyone really feel that we have improved?

You're right, Gregor nailed it in his EJ column. The real the issue is a systemic one. I feel like it might be a bit early to write off MacT, but the organization as a whole has no idea where they are doing. 3 consecutive 1st overall picks SHOULD pull a team out of the basement of the NHL.

The focus on skill has been a huge failure. The team is small and soft. It doesn't matter if we have all the skill in the world, this team cannot compete with bigger and meaner teams (i.e. every team in the NHL).

I bought into the rebuild and I have been patient for many years. I'm out of patience, this team is a joke.

This is especially difficult given that both goalies have been so bad early and everyone is calling for their head. All he really had to was play decent and everyone would have been going nuts to get this guy at least as a back up. That he made 47 freakin saves is ludicrous. Had we had goal tending like this all year, we would be in way better position.

As for a guy with a bad track record coming to a new team and turning it around, doesn't this sort of thing happen all the time? Luongo out of Florida, Kipper out of wherever, Smith out of Tampa, Bobrofsky out of Philly? And on and on and on. Maybe we shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth and realize we might have just gotten our sleeper goalie.

Bachman's ridiculous performance aside last night, what struck me was how hard he fought for every save. Really reminded me of Andy Moog, a little guy who would do almost anything to keep the puck out of the net. If you're a forward how could you not lay your guts out for a guy like that?

Bachman as our new Moog? Yeah. I could buy that.

As an aside, I get leaning on historic stats and all but at 26 don't you think there's a possibility an athlete can improve? It seems a bit small minded to assume that just because he had middling stats in his career to date means he's topped out. I'd buy into the stats argument if he was 35 or something, but now? Maybe that's a bit premature in this case.

Obviously we can't use one game to determine the value of one player, on the other hand, it is quite obvious that Bachman is an upgrade to what the Oil had in goal so far this season!
When you find something that's work, then you should stay with it, until it's not good, you then decide, not before!!! Easy enough decision to make, isn't it???

THis guy is always square to the shooter, challenging, and NOT giving up rebounds.

Dubby is always hiding deep in his net flopping around like a wounded fish.......I know who I would want in net.

If the name of the game is puck stopping then this is our man. There is one small problem with the overwhelming support for this guy that being Eakins. I'm not sure if Bachmans style of play supports what Eakins is trying with his system of play?

I'm not going to put the cart before the horse and hand Bachman the #1 spot, because it's just one game, but damn was he stellar in that game. Give him a few more reps and some back-to-back starts, and let's see where it goes.

This guy had a great camp and even Eakins said that he only lost out on the backup spot because Duby and Barbs where Goaltenders with NHL history. At this point, he may have just played his way into that backup role at the very least, and it's great to see someone with promise finally coming up through the ranks that isn't a Forward.

The glove saves he made last night were fantastic, not once did he look shaky or unsure. And how about that splits save in the final minute to keep it tied? That's exactly what we've been missing - the big save when we needed it.

I loved BAchman's game. The problem is, if this was a one off and he starts playing worse than LABarbera, and Labarbera gets waved today, then the Oilers are even more screwed than they were before. Having said that, It is hard to fathom that Bachman will do worse than LaBarbera's numbers this season.

Johnathan, we have to quit putting so much value on save%, GA average for goaltenders that played in an organization that are defence first, does anyone really think that Mike Smith would have a $6mil contract if he would have played for the Oil the last two years? The biggest mistake made on the Labarbara signing is he is Dubynk's buddy, this is not a good arrangement and there were better options.

Your comment reminds me of the implosion of Bryzgalov in Philadelphia.

The Oilers must not overthink this. That was by far the best goaltending performance of the year. Keep starting him as long as he is playing well. If it means waiving Labarbera, so be it. Wins are the only thing that matter. Keep the two goalies that give you the best chance to win.

Go back a read my first comment on this discussion.That is what I saw while watching the game.Not the score sheet saying Acro held Kopitar to no points.What I saw was Acro being owned the whole game and Bachman saving the team.

I believe you are missing my point. I really wish I could sit down with you and show you some video. We are only talking about Mark Arcolbello and Anze Kopitar. And what happened when both players were on the ice at the same time. That's the discussion you started. And as such, with out video it's difficult to prove a point.

But I consistently saw Arcolbello force Kopitar to make a play, or take him out of the play. As a player that's what you are supposed to do. It's then on your team mates to do their job. While you continue to keep your player, who that is depends on what the system dictates, out of the play. And that's what Arcolbello did. Him and Perron are great together.

So I ask again. If you were watching who was Gordon playing against last night?

I think the smaller more agile and mobile goalies right now have adapted to equipment changes better. Some of the bigger goalies like Dubby, Smith, Luongo, Rhine have struggled while it seems the smaller more athletic goalies have done moderately better.
What I liked about Bachman game was that he was positionally good, came out to play shots, covered the bottom of the net, did not go down to early and had rebound control.

Not going to crown his savior yet, but last night he gave his team a chance, and the fans hope. Gotta love the guy who got off a plane, and went to war for 65 minutes and inspired the troops, even if was for only a night. I wish him well, and I hope they ride this guy till he breaks.